Josette Lewis

Dr. Josette Lewis is the CEO of Sustainable Conservation, which advances collaborative stewardship of California’s natural resources for the benefit of the environment and people. Previously, Dr. Lewis was vice president and chief scientific officer of the Almond Board of California, overseing grower-funded research on all aspects of growing almonds, on innovative new uses of almond co-products and on the health benefits of almond consumption. Josette has worked in agriculture for more than 30 years, spanning government, industry, university and non-governmental organizations, including the Environmental Defense Fund, the World Food Center at UC Davis and Arcadia Biosciences. Prior to that, Josette spent 16 years at the U.S. Agency for International Development, including as Director of the Office of Agriculture at USAID where she worked with senior levels of the U.S. government to develop a $1 billion per year global food security initiative. She has served on the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture’s advisory committee on Agricultural Biotechnology in the 21st Century, the Foundation for Agricultural Research’s Food Systems Innovation Advisory Committee, the James Beard Foundation Impact Program Advisory Committee and is a member of the board of directors for the International Life Sciences Institute Research Foundation.